Any Internet user can participate: teams/individuals can register from May, 25 to the end of the challenge (http://phdays.com/personal/?register=yes). Challenge will start on May, 30, 05:00 GMT (09:00 MSK) and will last until the end of conference: May, 31, evening (exact time will be announced later).

Several thousand hashes of different types will be available: NTLM (cost:20), LM (20), DES (120), Oracle (20), SHA1 (20), SSHA1 (60), MD5 (10), md5($pass,$salt) (60), Blowfish(Openbsd) (500), SHA256 (60), GOST3411 (160), md5(phpBB3) (350), md5(wordpress) (350), MySQL5 (20), MSSQL2005 (20) and DCC2 (200). Passwords and rules used to generate hashes are categorized into number of groups to reflect their complexity. Each group has its own modifier formula and ratio which will significantly influence final hash cost. Only base hash costs are available now.

Looking for patterns and thematic passwords is best way to win the challenge.

Rules/Terms

- The cost of hashes can be changed before the challenge;
- File containing the hashes and the file format required to submit recovered passwords will be available in the registered user area at http://phdays.com;
- You can upload the results of your work multiple times during the challenge;
- Size of participating teams is not limited;
- You can use any hardware you want as long as it's legit;
- Teams attacking/DoS'ing the challenge site or other teams will be disqualified;
- Short technical write-up describing the software, hardware and wetware resources used during the challenge is required to get the prizes in case you win;
- Up to date scoreboard listing will be available online during the timeframe of the challenge;
- Organizers can shift challenge time window at will: you will find news if any at contest page or will receive updates to registered e-mail;
- You agree to publish all stats that were gathered during the challenge: who, when, how fast and how much was cracked;
- The results will be announced on June, 1 (file with passwords and rules also will be released).

Prizes will be provided by the PHDays organizers, the Positive Technologies company, and the forum sponsors. The first prize is the AMD Radeon HD 7970 graphics card. The prizes for second and third places are memorabilia and diplomas.